Kiwi-Corolla

Thanks man :) I installed my 18mm Whiteline rear swaybar today. I finished installing it quite late in the afternoon so haven't had a chance to go for a drive yet but I'm sure I'll have a bit of fun throwing the car around some corners to test it out :cool:

Here are my two latest purchases - An Ultra Racing 29mm solid front swaybar and a Whiteline 18mm solid rear swaybar, both with polyurethane bushings. Should make a very noticeable difference to the handling compared to the original 24mm front and 14mm rear swaybars :)

I received/installed this today - An Ultra Racing rear strut brace. Should help stiffen things up a little more :)

My latest mod that I decided to install today - 266mm rear disc brakes! I converted from the old drum brakes to these nice shiny discs from a JDM AE101 Levin GT Apex (same discs/calipers used on the JDM AE101 Corolla GT sedan, FX-GT hatchback and BZ Touring wagon models). The discs and pads are brand new so I had a bit of fun earlier bedding them in earlier :). Took me half the day to install them as I had to run the new handbrake cables and painstakingly remove the long bolt that goes through the lateral arms but I got there in the end. Here's some photos of the finished job:

Here's some new photos that I took today:

Thanks! :) Oh wow, you're not very far from me at all. I'm not far from Manukau.

Here's my latest mod - FGK 4-2-1 stainless steel extractors. Designed and built in Japan by Fujitsubo Giken Kogyo and are one of the best sets of extractors you can buy for the 4A-GE. Had them fitted today and I'm already noticing a power increase. It replaces the very restrictive factory squished pipe that goes over the front subframe, so there's no more flat spot in the rev range when accelerating at full throttle. The needle seems to sky rocket even faster to redline and doesn't feel so sluggish down low. Also fitted an OEM 24mm front swaybar, although haven't had a chance to test out the new handling characteristics yet as I had the old factory extractors etc in the boot on the way home so I didn't want everything sliding around and causing damage.

Thanks man. Whereabouts are you from? I'm always out and about around Auckland, mainly out south though. You're bound to see me one of these days :happy: Cheers!! :D. Nope, no filters on the trumpets ;). Will sound crazy to some people but suits me fine :cool:

Thanks for the compliment! :). I got the sound deadening over here. There was no brand on it but it's really good quality stuff. I'm sure you'll be able to find someone over there who stocks a similar product. Ask around at car audio shops as I'm sure they'll have some contacts :). The stuff I got was only $25 NZD a sheet.

My latest purchase - A brand new set of BC Gold coilovers. Ended up getting them for a really good price so grabbed them today. They have 30-way damper adjustability so my spine shouldn't shatter to pieces on long trips :D I installed them today. I've set the damper knobs to 5 clicks from fully soft on the fronts and 10 clicks from fully soft on the rear. The ride height has been adjusted to 300mm from the center of each wheel to the fender lip, which has the subframe sitting at bang on 100mm off the ground, the minimum height allowed by law here in New Zealand. I must say that I'm VERY impressed with the ride quality of the BC's. When I first went for a test drive I honestly couldn't tell that I had installed coilovers as the ride comfort was virtually the same as my old spring/strut combo, however when going around corners you could definitely notice the difference in the handling performance as it stuck to the road as if it were on rails. I've booked my car in for a full wheel alignment tomorrow so once the toe is reset and everything else aligned I'm sure it'll handle even better. All in all I'm extremely happy with these coilovers so far and I look forward to putting them through their paces over the coming years. Here's some pics I took after installing them, and a photo of a sticker that I bought on the way home from my test drive to finish the day nicely :)

I spent a couple of hours sound deadening both front doors yesterday. I bought four sheets of the stuff the other day and did the outer skin (door handle side) with just one sheet each side. Planning on putting some inside the actual door panels themselves and possibly on the inner skin of the door too. Pulled the window regulators and glass out which made the job a lot easier. Amazing how much of a difference it has made, not just in music quality but the whole feel of the door. Feels much nicer to open and close now and should help drown out some of the road noise when driving. And I just spent another 3-hours today sound deadening the inner skin and the door panel/card on each side. Also installed some new component speakers. Went from 6.5" 4-way speakers with 75w RMS each to 6.5" component speakers with 60w RMS each. The old speakers sounded good but since I have 6.5" 90w RMS 3-way speakers in the rear deck and factory tweeters up front there was far too much treble, so the component speakers fixed that nicely. Kept the factory tweeters so I didn't have to make up a special mounting bracket for the new ones. Everything is being driven off my 444w 4-channel amplifier under my front passenger's seat. Here's a comparison video between the front and rear doors I took once I finished: And a whole bunch of photos I took during the process:

Today I installed a custom made bellmouth that I made by a metal spinner (the same person who made my trumpets). I also put the first half of the factory surge box/plenum back on so it's sandwiched between the trumpets. Should keep a bit more of the heat out and looks better at the same time.

Here's my latest addition which I installed yesterday - A very rare genuine Toyota Graphic Equalizer!! :D. This was only available as an additional option for customers who purchased the Super Live Sound System option when the car was purchased brand new in Japan. The EQ was a rather pricey add-on so there aren't many of these units floating around out there. They were available for all of the AE101 models (this particular one came out of an AE101 FX-GT) and various other models of that same era. When I found it the plug had been chopped off and it was disconnected, so it was a bit of a gamble as to if it actually worked, but fortunately a guy I know in Australia had also managed to get his hands on one late last year for his AE101 Levin and had already figured out which wires went where and was able to provide me with all of the info I needed to make the installation quick and easy :). I had to convert the factory audio wires to RCA connectors so that it was compatible with my modern day head-unit and aftermarket amplifier, but apart from that everything else was virtually a cut-and-splice type of job. The equalizer allows you to adjust the audio settings very precisely, ranging from thumping bass to ear-piecing highs, with 3 programmable user presets to select from depending on which genre of music you're listening to so that you can basically 'set it and forget it'. Otherwise you can adjust each individual setting to your liking by going through the frequency tuning screen and moving the levels up or down. As for the visualizations, there are 3 different display settings and 2 display level settings. I personally like the traditional graph-type display, however the drop-type and 'bounce' type display settings are also cool to watch. You can set it to stay on one particular display setting or have it revolve to different settings as you're driving. The buttons light up when the park lights/headlights are turned on and the display is able to be dimmed both night and day, regardless if your lights are on or not. The 'DEF' button beside the 'DIM' button standards for 'Definition'. When this is pressed/activated it basically helps to make musical instruments sound more defined. Once you've played around with all of the different settings and have discovered what works best for your particular taste, your whole audio experience is enhanced and everything sounds exactly how the producer of the music would have intended it to. It works really well with the four coaxial speakers I have installed and compliments the factory option tweeters superbly. This is the second one I've ever known of in real-life and the first one I've ever seen anywhere over here so I decided to remove the factory option Multibox and stick this in it's place. It's been a fun little unit to play around with so far :) Here are a couple of photos that I took today, and also a video that the guy in Australia made who I mentioned earlier (all credit for the video goes to him - Footage of the equalizer in action starts at 59s) -

Here's some new photos that I took yesterday:

I changed my front lip in the weekend. Decided I wanted something slightly fatter to give the front end a 'fuller' look - The only problem was that the particular front lip I wanted was extremely hard to find. After searching the local junkyards and wreckers for about a year I finally managed to find one a week ago. The actual lip itself is a genuine Toyota item which was a factory optional extra for the 1997-2001 Toyota Caldina (ST215, JDM). Since they were only available as an option, the vast majority of Caldinas don't have them fitted, which is why it took so long for me to find one. Got one in the end though and did a bit of custom work to make it fit. The fitment was very close but I had to heat it up to adjust the curvature a bit. Here's some pics that I took today:

^ Yeah it should look heaps better. Looking at getting a custom one made up from the same guy who made the trumpets :) I bought and installed some TRD spark plug leads today: Also bought an FGK header set and spent the afternoon polishing it up (only the parts that are visible when installed). Will probably chuck it on in a couple of weeks:

Thanks. Yeah it really does. Planning on changing the blue silicone joiner to a black one and putting a bellmouth on the end of the pipe facing towards the trumpets. May get another 45-degree pipe and cut it so that it sits slightly closer to the trumpets too. Won't look like a pipe that was just left there after the conversion that way, lol, but for now it's my only source of cold air to the trumpets :)

I replaced the factory screws that hold the trumpets on with some much nicer looking hex key screws today. Simple yet effective :). I also took some proper shots of the new engine bay:

In-car video of me enjoying the newly fitted trumpets. Just under 8-minutes of pure acceleration:

Thanks man :D I installed the trumpets today. Sounds absolutely amazing. Like music to my ears. I knew they were going to be loud, but not THAT loud, not that I'm complaining :) Rigged up my old cold air intake piping to it in an attempt to route force-fed cold air to the trumpets from the pipe positioned behind the front bumper. Will probably keep it there as it can't do any harm, but will change the blue silicone joiner to a black one so it doesn't look so out of place. Didn't have a chance to do any drive-by videos today, but took a couple of videos of me revving it, which I have compiled into this YouTube video: And of course, a few photos for good measure:

Na, a company down in Canterbury spun them up for me :)

These arrived in the mail today - My 110mm trumpets (ram tubes/velocity stacks). Made right here in New Zealand:

Thanks! :D I installed a 240kph speedometer today :cool:

Went for a quick photoshoot today :cool:

^ Haha, agreed! :D I installed the standard airbox/ducting today and reinstalled the oil catch can. Looking how I want it now! :)